It is impossible to tell which of the two dispositions we find in men is more harmful in a republic, that which seeks to maintain an established position or that which has none but seeks to acquire it.

To be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.

I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.

The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.

Let him who desires peace prepare for war.

Every communist must grasp the truth: “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”

My people and I have come to an agreement that satisfies us both. They are to say what they please, and I am to do what I please.

The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

Politics is the art of the possible.

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham.